The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-06-04

and drive and its never ending noise of
shop and office, of engine and machin-
cry, and of study and growth. What
restless stream it is-forever moving,
never still. Out of Chicago 60 nearly
800 passenger trains daily and as many
more return, carrying too and fro
their precious loads of freight. The
great Raymond hotel kept 800 guests
daily for over 100 days, making over
10000 in third of year who came
from all parts Of the earth, Jared sump-
tuously, and were scattered again to the
four winds of heaven. So it is all over
this vast country; so it is all over the
world. Man is never at rest, Step on
to through train any day and you will
find a parlor car, palatial dining car
and sleepers, so literally true is it that
man eats and sleeps and lives on the
move. There are 125, 900 miles of rail-
roads in the United States alone
enough to five times girdle the whole
earth. What multitude of people they
carry from place to place, and what vast
armies of men must live on the cars as
employees, to accommodate the moving
millions.
We are whirled across the continent
to Chicago or New York; we are car
ried over mountains, through deserts,
across deep canyons, and over mighty
rivers, by night and day, as safely as if
we were at home. We seldom see the
men who guard us by night and care
for us by day, and yet we trust them
with our lives, while they whirl us
across the continent, and they seldom
betray us. Constantly we commit our
lives to their hands, and they keep safe
watch over us. We live this life by
faith, and our faith is well founded in
these brawny sons of humanity. L
honor, more and more, these railroad
men who night and day keep watch
ever us and to whom we trust our lives.
How much we live by faith But
faith in these sons of God is well
grounded.
What marvel is this worldly life of
man. We cannot measure it? We
build up cities in day. We inaugur-
ate vast schemes, which stagger even
the wise, and we have the nerve to
carry them through. The Santa Fe
system earns fifteen million dollars in
a year, and keeps thousands of active
men busy. One firm in Chicago does
an annual business of thirty millions
of dollars, and one busy brain directs it
all. These are but little items in the
great world of commerce. Yet the
whole system is kept constantly and
steadily in motion by busy hands and
active brains. Night and day this tide
of life moves on and never stops. I'm
known hands bring our letters from
loved ones far away as surely as the
day comes. And so the work of the
world is done, steadily and smoothly,
without friction or jar. Do you say
this is all mans work !? l tell you nay.
Man cannot compass it. 1t is the In
finite will, working in us to accomplish
his great purposes in the human race.
But what will be the effect of all this
rush and restlessness on the moral life
and Christian character of men ? Is
there danger in it )? Yes, and many go
down in the vortex of it's excitement.
The current is too strong, and some are
carried away before its onward sweep.
But the great multitude who pull on its
stream, gain strength and skill. They
are drawer and better for the struggle.
I know there is temptation and peril in
this busy life. But / know, too, that
out of these, come characters, the no.
blest and the best. In Iowa, stood by
the bedside of an engineer. We thought
it was his dying bed. He went down
with his engine at the dead of night,
into the rushing waters of the swollen
stream that had undermined the track.
He was rescued with his right arm
broken, and the left useless from
bruises. There was constant hemor-
rhage from internal injuries that threat
ened the very citadel of life. There
was little hope of his recovery, but his
blood was free from dissipation or
drunkenness. No alcoholic fires had
been consuming in his veins the tenn
pie of life. His manly strength was
not wasted by vice and passion. His
mind was clear and his heart was right.
With such reinforcements, nature made
grand fight, even against hope, and
she conquered. But if he had been
poisoned by intemperance or wasted by
dissipation, life could not have with
stood that terrible shock. When day
after day we knelt at his bedside, at his
request, and poured out our SOULS pc
titions for this suffering one, who was
trembling on the very verge of life, 1
felt that all the forces, both physical
and moral, were working together for
the best result. And when thought
how this man had kept his life so clean
and noble and true, amid the rush and
turmoil and danger of railroad life, l
4 Il. .G int ho